The Thirty Years War was from 1618 to 1648 and was one of the bloodiest, most destructive conflicts in human history. The roots of the war grew out of conflict between Catholics and Protestants but over time the war spread to involve most of the great European powers of the age and became much less about religion and much more about political hegemony. The destruction brought by the war had a far reaching effect and was one of first examples of the concept of total war where civilian loss of life far outpaced battlefield losses through a combination of disease and famine. In some nations, total population had been reduced by as much as 25% over this thirty year period.

First Legion has evolved to cover the military aspects of the Thirty Years War with the Battle of Rocroi in 1643. The battle was late in the TYW and featured the French decisively defeating the Spanish and marking the beginning of the end of the myth of invincibility of the Spanish Tercio. The Spanish Tercio it should be noted fought gallantly at this battle withstanding repeated infantry and cavalry attacks despite the dissolution of the army around them and were never driven from the field. Rather the French commander, the Duc d'Enghien, offered them surrender terms similar to that of a besieged fortress allowing them to leave the field with their flags and weapons.

Fittingly enough, First Legion has started their coverage of Rocroi with the famed Spanish Tercio. The release is very loosely inspired by the wonderful painting of the battle by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau and features simply wonderful sculpting and hand painting carrying on with the quality level set with First Legion's earlier Thirty Years War releases. Overall, the Tercio release will feature full command, standards, and wide variety of pikemen and musketeers allowing for a fantastic battle diorama to come to life. We hope you enjoy the new figures and direction of our Thirty Years War figure range and the Spanish Tercio.